Sustainable Good

Five Good Non-Fiction Books on Africa

1. “Africa: A Biography of the Continent,” by John Reader. A wide-reaching and sweeping look at trends and broader explanations for the way things are, covering history, geography, anthropology, biology and politics. While it is a thick tome (some 700 pages) it manages to be engaging, interesting and easy to read. This would be a good place to start for the interested newcomer to African issues.

2. “Africa Works: Disorder as a Political Instrument,” by Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz. A lucid and theoretically-rich exposition of African politics. Describing how systems of patronage operate within the context of modern states, Chabal and Daloz provide powerful explanations for conflict, corruption and poor economic development. It also introduces English-speakers to the rich seam of francophone research and literature about Africa.

The Liberal Dilemma

I have been thinking a lot recently about my relationship with the world. What is my ecological footprint? How does my life affect the poor? What does my spending have to do with those who have less? How am I making the world better? I started this questioning in a previous post, but was recently faced head-on with a conflict that brought my struggles into greater focus.

I was at an acquaintance's party just relaxing on her patio talking and meeting new people. I was having a good time enjoying the night. But a couple of the other guests, a brother and sister, were having a heated discussion about an issue that summarizes one my current dilemmas: gentrification. The brother and sister were African American and had lived on Capitol Hill in DC all their lives. They were complaining that they were sick of people being surprised when the siblings said they were from DC.

Khakis, Pockets and Adventurous Hats: Tourism and the Colonial Imagination

I needed an adventurous hat – khaki-colored with a broad brim, evocative of Indiana Jones. Such were my thoughts as I prepared for a visit to Kenya during a summer break from college nine years ago. The hat made me look incredibly silly and eventually I came to my senses, giving it away. But for a few weeks it made me feel like a bona fide swashbuckler.

A couple years later, as I shopped for clothes before going on an aid work assignment in Zambia, I went for the whole look – buying khaki trousers and shirts with hundreds of pockets. I looked like a bad caricature of the European explorer in Africa (see the photo of me by the taxi) but I felt dashing and exciting nonetheless.

As I have spent more time on the African continent I have begun to reflect on the absurdity of this behavior which is so common among North Americans and Europeans that come here.

"Well, Did it Change Your Life?"

I am inspired to know that more people keep realizing the value of the development process that Outreach International uses. This is Chelsea Carter's reflection after she returned from a site visit to Nicaragua with Outreach International:

Just over one year ago, I began to think about taking the Nicaragua Winter Term. The first time I heard about the trip was in a Sunday night service at Graceland University. The speaker shared her testimony about the trip, and described how the experience radically changed her life in profound ways. This is the sort of story that seemed to come from everyone who talked about his or her visit to Nicaragua. The stories stayed consistent from student to student in terms of how the trip so greatly impacted their lives. It almost became a sort of joke between my circle of friends and I. Every semester when we heard that someone had just got back from Nicaragua, our first question to them was always, “Well did it change your life!?”

After hearing this same testimony over and over from a broad spectrum of personalities across campus, I began to consider the possibility that maybe I should check out this potentially life changing experience too.

Poverty is Systematic, Not Just a Lack of Things

In an op-ed in this weekend's Examiner (Independence, MO), I highlighted Outreach International's work struggling against poverty in communities around the world. I argued that one cannot simply blame the poor for their poverty or assume that it is simply due to a lack of money or skills. Rather, the roots of poverty lie in poor people’s lack of power over and participation in the institutions and systems – economic, political, social and cultural – that determine the course of their lives.

To read the whole article, click here.

- Matthew Bolton

Witches, Witch Doctors and Exorcisms

Conversations about real-life witches, witch doctors, exorcisms and the like are some of the most uncomfortable moments in my travels. Before I went to India for two months to teach English with World Service Corps, I was told that I would definitely be asked to do exorcisms. So, I was sitting in the last church service thanking God that I was not going to have to do an exorcism in India. And then after the service, one of the congregation members came up to me and said through translation that he was plagued by a demon. That was my cue to stumble and fumble through a prayer for the man's wholeness.

This brings to light one of the most difficult challenges of international development--being culturally sensitive. The belief in the supernaturally evil is not common in Western culture. However, it is normal in a lot of the world. This means that when Western organizations are working in other cultures, they must balance their criticism of some culture norms (such as female circumcision) with their respect for local customs.

This balance of respect and critique in local cultures is one of the best things about Outreach International. Because local people who work with Outreach International carry out their own community development, it is easier to work in culturally sensitive ways. Outreach International dialogues with local human development facilitators to challenge some of their own cultural norms, especially repressive practices that prevent everyone from participating fully in the community.

-Stephen Donahoe & Karyn Wingard-Manuel